ARTS Friday, October 9, 1987 The Michigan Daily Page 7 Geri Allen: Open minded sounds By Marc S. Taras Geri Allen is coming full circle. The native Detroit pianist and composer will lead her octet Open On All Sides through two shows (8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.) at the Ark this Saturday night before taking the group on a European tour. Allen has been in New York making big beautiful noise and riding the lightning bolt of the new music with several other players of her generation. "This is a very exciting time for music - and for art," she says. "A new generation of musicians, in drawing from tradition and their own experience, are leading a comeback for live music. In New York, musicians are fighting to have the cabaret laws changed... we want to reach the people who produce live shows." The Geri Allen story began in Pontiac Michigan, where she was' born. Her family moved to the Detroit area at an exceptionally fruitful time for the Detroit music scene. Her parents had exposed her to the jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, and Detroit radio delivered James Brown, Funkadelic, and the Motown sound. Allen began to apply herself seriously to jazz music after attending Cass Tech High School in Detroit. Cass Tech has a world renowned jazz program, and after attending workshops hosted by trumpet legend Marcus Belgrave, Allen was taken under his wing and a lasting friendship was born. Her university experience includes fours years of music at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and studios in Ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh. She has established a strong reputation in New York over the past few years, working and recording with numerous major artists including Lester Bowie and Joseph Harman. She has two solo tours of Europe behind her, and three very diverse recordings for the German Minor Music label. Evidence on the new album indicates that we may expect a major contribution from Open on All Sides. Allen may be remembered by local jazz fans for her Ann Arbor engagement with flutist James Newton. Now she is returning with an amazing octet of Michigan natives. "There is so much talent here, and not enough outlets," Allen explained in a telephone interview. "If all the musicians and artists would shut down for a weekend we'd see how important it is." Don't worry folks. There is no danger of a boycott this weekend! Geri Allen is a champion for live music. Open On All Sides "... combines a lot of different elements," she says. "We move in and out of a lot of things.. I like to deal with natural elements in my music - it should be healing." Allen's band features saxophonist David McMurray, bassist Jaribu Shahid, drummer Tani Tabbal (three of the regular members of the Griot Galaxy), the remarkable Rayse Biggs on trumpet (he'll even play two at once), trombonist Gerald Savage, percussionist Sadiq Muhammed, and the healing vocalizations of Shahida Nurullah. On their shared Detroit background Allen says, "I recognize certain similarities... certain unspoken things... (an understanding) that comes from the combined experiences that all of us have had. We also share a concern for world music - international Black music - and what's beyond." Geri Allen isn't opposed to DJs and radio, though. "I just want to see live music re-emerge as a natural part of everything else." Tomorrow night in two shows at the Ark, an artist whose heart and mind, spirit and music really is Open On All Sides will welcome us to share our experiences and our selves. What could be finer than this? Geri Allen and Open On All Sides are all the way live. Showtimes are set for 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the Michigan Union Ticket Office, Schoolkids' Records, P.J.'s Used Records, and all TicketMaster outlets. Michigan Daily ARTS 763-0379 Geri Allen will bring her octet Open On All Sides to the Ark tomorrow night. I Leningrad Symphony brings Shostako vich to A By David Hoegberg Ann Arbor is enjoying something of a Shostakovich festival this season. Last month the Ann Arbor Symphony performed the local premiere of Shostakovich's heart- rending Thirteenth Symphony. On Sunday, the Leningrad State Symphony will be in Hill Aud- itorium to present perhaps his greatest symphony, the Tenth, in a concert that also includes Weber's Overture to Euryanthe and Beethoven's Violin Concerto.. Dmitri Shostakovich belongs to the first generation of Russian composers to be educated entirely under the Soviet system. Unlike his older contemporaries, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Shostakovich never left the system, but this did not keep him from being in many ways a revolutionary. In 1948, he was among a group of composers officially chastised by the Union of Soviet Composers for, among other things, fostering a "cult of atonality, dissonance, discord." Although none of Shostakovich's works is terribly dissonant by modern Western standards, the composer publicly recanted but began saving his more challenging works until government standards should be relaxed. The relaxation came with Stalin's death in 1953. In December of that 'year Shostakovich presented his Tenth Symphony, his first symphony in eight years. It is a monumental, tragic work with a jocund final movement that is often The Following Is A Paid Advertisement interpreted as a sarcastic comment on the government's ludicrous musical dicta. Predictably, the Tenth caused controversy in the Soviet Union at the time, but it quickly became and has remained a favorite with orchestras around the world. The Leningrad State Symphony has a special claim to authority when it comes to Shostakovich's music. The composer spent the first few months of World War II in Leningrad when the Nazis were besieging the city. The Symphony, then known as the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, bravely continued its schedule of broadcasts right through the devastating attacks. Shos- takovich later dedicated his Seventh Symphony, mostly written there during the siege, to the city of Leningrad and has performed with the orchestra, whose distinguished list of associates also includes Igor Stravinsky and Benjamin Britten. nn Arbor Sunday's audience should be treated to a monumental work performed as the composer intended. Last appearing in Ann Arbor in 1977, the Symphony now returns under the current cultural exchange program of the United States and the Soviet Union. Its conductor, Alex- ander Dmitriev, was seen here in 1975 with the Moscow State Symphony. Phone 764-0558 APRIANS The Sunday afternoon concert presents Geri Allen and Open On All Sides Ex Sat.,Oct, 10 8 & 10:30 pm. "The most exciting pianist TheA rk since Herbie Hancock" Tickets $750 -Musician Magazine To charge by phone, 763-TKTS co-sponsored by P.J.'s Used Records will be at 4 p.m. in Hill Auditorium and will be preceded by a lecture, - T m5 % "Shostakovich and Beethoven: Approaches to Form," at 3 p.m. in PRINTING Rackham Auditorium Tickets range from $10-$22 and may be purchased HIGH QUALITY at the University Musical Society's LOW PRICES Burton Tower office, or by phone SINCE 1973 with Visa or Mastercard. Call the UMS at 764-2538 today from 9 1002 PONTIAC TR. a.m.-4:30 p.m. or tomorrow from 9 994-1367 a.m. until noon forfurther details. C 338 S. State C Door Prizes * Posters * CORONA T-SHIRTS $5.00 " WIQB - Fox Village, Briarwood' movieI passes TUESDAY 10-CLOSE LUB $1.5 a b $1.0 nacl NIGHT 50 Xttle corona )Ooff Eta hos Caution! Computer Kickoff Buyers For those of you intending to purchase the Citizen MSP-10 printer this weekend be advised that it is a printer that may be discontinued soon. Approximately 6 weeks ago I spoke with Bill Currie, a Citizen Sales Manager, and he indicated that when, the U of M signed the deal for the MSP-1O it was going to be discontinued (that primarily accounts for the low price). He went further to say that Citizen had changed their minds and that it was going to stay in production, but I have my doubts. The MSP-10 has been virtually unchanged since its introduction several years ago and it lacks the features and price/performance of many other printers. Additionally, Citizen has introduced the MSP-40 that is priced very close to the MSP-10 and has many of the features that are necessary to compete with other printers. I was told that making the above statement would reflect poorly on me and my company since I do sell computers and printers and could gain from increased sales of our products. While this is true, I felt that people have a right to the "rest of the story" especially given the large number of people participating in this event. Some members of the U of M feel that no one can do anything as well as they can, especially when it comes to local business people, and that is just not true. We try to give our customers Mm!m